The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe says it is time to stop politicising crime, as he accused the former administration of dismantling a long term plan to address the issue.

“You don’t politicise crime,” Mr Munroe said, adding that when you do so it then becomes a problem.

He was responding to deputy Free National Movement leader Shenendon Cartwright who on Monday called on the government to disclose a crime plan as the nation’s murder count continues to rise. There have been 75 murders to date according to The Tribune’s records.

Mr Munroe said there is a crime plan the former Minnis administration agreed to in 2016, which was a part of “Vision 2040”.

“The thing that is troubling about our opposite side, we as a country spent a lot of energy, a lot of resources, we went through all the studies,” he said.

“The crime plan said that you divert youth at risk from criminal behaviour; it specifically mentioned Urban Renewal. The opposite side came into power and gutted it.

“If we understand that youth at risk, in other words troubled young men, boys from 12 to 13 (years old), if you don’t divert them by the time they reach 15 to 17 they may be shooters. So, if you then gut the programmes that are meant to divert them from criminal behaviour, why are you talking about a crime plan? That was the plan, you didn’t follow it.”

Mr Munroe said he has not heard a proper explanation as to why the previous administration decided to depart from it in 2017.

“If we understand that youth at risk, in other words troubled young men, boys from 12-13. If you don’t divert them by the time, they reach 15-17 they may be shooters. So, if you then gut the programmes that are meant to divert them from criminal behaviour. Why are you talking about a crime plan? That was the plan, you didn’t follow it, “ he said.

“We said that you have this phenomenon of young men, some of them have already crossed the line, so you have to address them in a particular manner. And you address them by apprehending them if they do that, put them in a correctional institution. Then actually having a correctional institution that corrects their behaviour, so that’s when they come out of there different.”

The minister said the Davis administration intends to follow through with the crime plan of action despite the Minnis administration not doing so.

“Before they become involved in criminal behaviour the plan that we all agreed to in 2016 said that you identify them with civil society church groups. We put in place programmes to seek to divert them from criminal conduct and criminal behaviour. We had a bunch of those that were gutted and then we are surprised that the level of young men, some of them as young as 15 years old are now stepping over the line because we didn’t divert them.”

He also said: “In my little church on Kemp Road I work with the altar servers, I work with young people whether the Minnis administration is in power, whether the Christie-Davis administration is in power. Bullets don’t have political affiliation, so we need to stop politicising crime.”